Review and Preview

 This week’s column is for all you “ass kickers” out there. You have a compatriot in very high places! Last week’s column had stated, “On Thursday, June 10, Mercury will enter its home sign of Gemini (along with the Moon). They will both form a mutable square to Mars the next day, June 11. Words matter and it is best keep one’s thoughts under control, unless you like an argument, or risk offending others. It will be interesting to watch Mr. Obama’s words late this week, as his natal Moon is in Gemini.”

So what happened? On June 8, Reuters reports, “President Barack Obama said he wanted to know "whose ass to kick" over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, adding to the pressure on energy giant BP (British Petroleum) Plc.” On June 10, John Napier, the chairman of RSA Insurance Group, wrote an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama describing his comments towards BP and its chief executive as "prejudicial and personal… We can all agree that the first and absolute priority is to stem the leak. Perhaps the second one is to ensure the reputation of the presidency outside the US is seen as objective, balanced, able and capable of taking the heat when under pressure…We liked the Obama we saw at your election, can we have more of it please.” And on Friday, June 11, the Financial Times writes, “UK industry expressed alarm yesterday at the “inappropriate” and increasingly aggressive rhetoric being deployed against BP by Barack Obama, US president, and warned that the attacks on the oil company could damage transatlantic relations.” Sounds like Mars, god of war, doesn’t it?

It was thus not a very good week for Mr. Obama. When transiting Mars is making hard aspects to one’s natal planets, the words of the legendary rock band “War” (from Chicago, Obama’s hometown, and a name appropriate to these times and this aspect) come to mind. In a song titled “Gotta Get Down,” there is a line about “kicking ass,” someone’s ass, anyone’s ass, and it ends with “I might even (have to) kick my own ass.” Or better yet, learn to think twice before speaking when Mars strikes, because one’s words can be offensive and lead to disputes.

In financial markets, Financial Astrology continues to accurately describe the market environment. It’s volatile. It’s wild. Strong moves up are followed by a sudden turn about, and vice-versa. On Tuesday, June 8, the very day of the first Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Aries, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to a new low for this year. But it wasn’t matched by new lows in the S&P or NASDAQ futures, thus creating a case of intermarket bullish divergence. The next day the DJIA was up 113, followed by a huge advance of 262 points on Thursday.

In the Asia and the Pacific Rim, the Japanese Nikkei made a now low as well last week, on June 9. But the All Ordinaries of Australia held its low of May 21; the NIFTY Index in India held its low of May 25; and the Hang Seng of Hong Kong held its low of May 27. Thus we have a series of intermarket bullish divergence from this region. In Europe, all the indices we track made their lows on May 25, and they were not taken out last week.

In other markets, the Euro currency found a bottom – perhaps temporarily – with a new 4-year low on Monday, June 7, at 1.1874. Crude Oil may have also found a bottom last Monday, just one day before the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, around 69.50. Gold made a new all-time high right on the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction of June 8 as it rose to 1254.50, but then started to pull back. In all these instances, one can clearly see that the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction correlated with powerful reversal signatures within one trading day.

In retrospect, we now have a case where the U.S. (and many other world) stock markets made their yearly high exactly on the date that Saturn was in opposition to Uranus (April 26), and their bottom exactly on the date that Jupiter was in conjunction to Uranus. This is why Financial Astrology “kicks ass” compared to other market timing tools.  This is how Financial Astrology works, and why it is extremely valuable, especially when used in combination with other studies like technical analysis, pattern recognition, and cycles’ analysis. But fortunately we live in a time when Financial Astrology is not overly used (or even considered valid) by the majority of investors, thus allowing us to continue with this “edge that all traders seek.”

Short-Term Geocosmics

The onslaught of important geocosmic signatures, one after the other, does not end yet. From May 30 through June 25, twelve important geocosmic signatures unfold. Eight of these are Level 1 types, which have the highest correlation to the completion of primary or greater cycles (see “The Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing, Volume 3: Geocosmic Correlations to Trading Cycles”). This includes the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction of last week, one of the strongest of all, given an orb of 11 trading days. But the midpoint of this ‘cluster’ is June 12, this weekend, so the possibility remains that markets will continue this behavior of wild price swings. This time band ends with the full moon lunar eclipse (June 26), conjunct Pluto, and in the early degrees of cardinal signs, thus touching off the Cardinal Climax. And all of this is but a prelude for late July through early August, when Mars and Saturn both enter Libra, setting off the core of this once-in-a-lifetime celestial mandala. For an astrologer, it is like watching the birth of a new era through three-D glasses designed to display the Creator’s writing in the heavens. Our job, as Financial and Mundane Astrologers, is to decipher what it means in terms of human evolution. Are we to destroy ourselves? Or experience a rebirth of great magnitude as it forces us to reach deep down into the innermost resources of our collective being?

The financial markets are apt to reflect the magnitude of this rare moment in human history too, for they are but arenas in which congregate some of the most intelligent people on the planet, each behaving in their own unique way to this invisible and mysterious energy, but ultimately causing a movement into a new and as yet unspecified direction. We are in a new portal of reality, and we are still trying to define the landscape that will eventually be shaped. 

Longer-Term Thoughts

 “… the phrase ‘robber baron’... entered the American lexicon as a term for an industrialist who wields his power unscrupulously, to the harm of others. (Henry J.) Raymond criticized (Cornelius) Vanderbilt for ‘driving too sharp a competition… competition for competition’s sake; competition which crowds out legitimate enterprises… or imposes tribute upon them’…”
- T.J. Stiles in “The First Tycoon,” regarding the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1860.

The Year of Extremism begins now from an astrological point of view, even though signs of this trend have been evidence since the 1000 point intraday drop in the DJIA in a matter of minutes on May 6. Jupiter and Uranus together represents extremism in many forms: in the price movements of financial markets, the urge to corner a particular area of business or a commodity, the bold aggression of a tyrant to control a nation’s government and treasury, or the emergence of a young super athlete (or horse) who breaks records in his/her sport. In Aries, it portends the re-emergence of the “macho-man,” one who dares others to try and stop him from doing what he damn well pleases. But even though Jupiter is with Uranus in Aries off and on for the next year, Uranus will be there for most of this decade (until 2018-2019). These themes will likely grow throughout this time, for Uranus in Aries is bold, aggressive, and wants things now. It is not a patient combination, and it is not one given to appeasement or respect for either morality or law.

At the same time Uranus will be in Aries, Pluto will be in Capricorn. Whereas Uranus in Aries wants the freedom to do whatever it damn well pleases, Pluto in Capricorn is consumed with the idea of forcing others to behave according to well defined and very strict rules of engagement. The key word might be “rules,” and there is an obsession that there must be severe consequences for breaking those rules. Since Capricorn rules governance and laws, this is the planetary combination that leads the thrust for more government regulations, especially over those entities whose lack of self-governance has led to a crisis, such as the banking and economic crisis of 2008. The threat of a second (and even third) crisis looms ahead, and government leaders are working feverishly to pass more and more acts of regulation in the hopes of preventing it.

But will more government regulations prevent crises? Or will they have an unforeseen opposite effect of actually creating more crises? The result of more and more limitations in activities implied by Pluto in Capricorn could lead to more and more risks from the ever rebellious, anti-authoritarian nature of Uranus in Aries. In a world of ever less resources and more restrictions to gain access to those resources, competition is apt to increase markedly to meet pent-up demand and thereby score huge profit. Regulations and laws will not matter in a New Era if competition becomes ruthless and those who have the most testosterone are the ones who end up controlling the much needed and much in-demand resources.

Where is this likely to appear and how can it be prevented, given understanding of these geocosmic principles? The problem may be in the continuing overlap between government and private enterprise. Governments around the world are becoming more enmeshed in the private industries of their nations, and powerful business and banking leaders are becoming ever more involved in influencing the policies of their government, despite the populist campaigning to the contrary of political leaders everywhere. Under certain types of regulatory reforms, strong-willed and tyrannical individuals can potentially gain monopolistic control through corrupt means, just as they have in the past under these kinds of geocosmic relationships. If this is going to work out well in the end, it will depend upon the emergence of strong leaders who hold personal values of integrity and honesty (the high side of Pluto in Capricorn) above the element of greed and attainment of absolute control through ruthless competition and destruction of opponents (the downside of Uranus in Aries, especially square to Pluto).

This is a theme that may play out more and more vividly with Uranus in Aries. Business versus Government may become a war zone. But what are the rules? And will they be abided?